25 Year Anniversary Lombarda Marmi

COMPANY Jun 28, 2021

25-year anniversary Lombarda Marmi

Gandhi is reborn in Botticino with Tempus Edax Rerum, an original work of street art. Commissioned by artist Vera Bugatti, in collaboration with Fabio Maria Fedele, the historic company Lombarda Marmi is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

25 years and a great desire to look to the future! With an even more international impetus and roots firmly rooted in the territory, Lombarda Marmi wishes to recall the long and fruitful activity, and also to be a witness to a tradition that continues, that of the stone industry, which renews and develops, with tenacity and dedication, in the sign of an all and only Italian excellence.

July 5, 2021, the program

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the forecourt of the Lower Menga Quarry served as the backdrop for a big party. Sponsored by the City of Botticino and the Botticino Classico Marble Producers Consortium, the event featured a succession of speakers:

Eng. Giovanni Merendino - CEO Lombarda Marmi Srl
Dr. Monica Berardi - President Consorzio Produttori Marmo Botticino Classico (Botticino Classico Marble Producers Consortium)
Geom. Gianbattista Quecchia - Mayor of Botticino
Dr. Sara Zugni - Art historian
Arch. Vincenzo Latina - Realizer of the Botticino Classico pavilion at the Milan Triennale in 2019
Moderator: Lawyer Luca Feroldi

A "magical adventure" that began 25 years ago in Botticino. An adventure called Lombarda Marmi; a company where the world of marble is the pivot of a millenary culture, documented by the most important and exclusive projects all over the world, where tradition is the engine to look beyond the horizon. This is Lombarda Marmi today, a reality of reference in the sector and a model for the extraction of Botticino Classico®. A reality that over the course of its activity has successfully adapted its business strategy to the needs of the stone market, always offering quality combined with safety and environmental protection and a comprehensive service thanks to highly specialized professionals. The numbers speak of a historic company that is part of the MGI Group, a solid entity with its own quarries and more than 70 years of experience in the excavation and processing of natural stone and that has made the continuous search for quality its mission. Unity is strength, which is why the partnership allows the creation of a unique synergy so that each MGI Group company generates virtuous economies in terms of investment, agility, efficiency and time-to-market.

The celebratory work by street artist Vera Bugatti was presented at the event. A unique mural: in the heart of Brescia's marble basin, the second in Italy after Carrara, the artist has renewed the quarry landscapes with a large work of art more than 30 meters long . Providing the backdrop for the decoration are raw walls in Botticino Classico®, with its refined hues shading from ivory to beige. Not just quarrying, then, at Botticino, but technology, workmanship, design, art, made in Italy. The work, which covers an area of about 320 square meters (about 32 in length and 10 in height inclined by about 25°), enriches a marble wall with a depiction of Gandhi. In the painting, the subject dialogues with the surrounding space. His piercing gaze aspires to spread an introspective message of peace, tolerance, and understanding. An opportunity to revive his thought, still a source of inspiration and decidedly relevant today in the words 'Be the change you want to see take place in the world. Vera Bugatti composes a work in which she explores the potential of street art by evolving its language to contemporary muralism to transform a work area into a man-made ecosystem strongly belonging to its community. Gandhi's face is interpreted according to his own stylistic code that connects images both purely geometric and closer to the figurative, creates depth where there is none, exploits the very diversity of the raw surface revealing a new beauty.

Photo credits: Andrea Zampatti

Eng. Giovanni Merendino, CEO Lombarda Marmi, has been successfully leading the company since its establishment. He expresses himself as follows, "Lombarda Marmi, a company that I have been running since 1996, a mining concessionaire in Botticino, and the owner of quarries in Nuvolera and Nuvolento, although young, has been able from the beginning to pick up the cultural and working heritage of our economic fabric. In its most recent history, Lombarda Marmi has experienced real growth, transformation, and evolution, shared with local institutions and the Consorzio Produttori Marmo Botticino Classico. The ideas and culture that have made Botticino a city at the forefront of stone culture now dress the walls of our quarry, making it an open-air canvas. We strongly wanted this work to transform the visual horizon of our marble basin into a new conceptual and chromatic experience, capable of enhancing the relationship with the rocky spaces and stimulating curiosity and cultural exchange."

Lombarda Marbles

Lombarda Marmi is at the absolute forefront of the quarrying and marketing of Botticino Classico® marble. An adventure that began in 1997, quarrying with passion and intuition, Lombarda Marmi consistently offers quality materials, making them available to the most creative and professional minds and lovers of beauty. Now active on a global scale with solid roots in the Indian market, it is open to interactions not only with the related worlds ofinterior design but also with the more distant worlds of art and design. The balanced combination of new solutions and the special dedication to the enhancement of stone have allowed Lombarda Marmi to be able to be one of the major players in the industry today. Respect for the environment and safety, the extensive quarrying territory at our disposal, strategically located in the heart of the marble basin, specialized personnel, and investment in the best technologies, represent for us that internationally recognized added value. Qualities that have rewarded and allowed Lombarda Marmi to become the first company in the stone industry to be certified, in the areas of quality, safety and environmental protection. An important milestone, to look ahead with confidence and with new goals constantly focused on the future.

John Merendino, CEO

Giovanni Merendino graduated in Chemical Engineering and after an experience in Agip Petroli dealing as process technician of the primary refining plants, in 1996 he moved to Botticino to follow as manager the Lombarda Marmi Srl, a new reality that was starting up in the field of Botticino Classico marble extraction. In 2009 he was elected president of the Botticino Classico Marble Producers Consortium. From 2012 to 2014 he served as President of the Scientific Committee of the Botticino Marble Museum, which was then desired by the Municipal Administration to relaunch the local museum site. In January 2018, after nine years of presidency and three consecutive terms, he left his position as president of the Consortium to take up his current one as vice president, in order to ensure continuity to an association that has relationships with almost all local institutions, and major world operators in the sector. In 2019 he joins the board of directors of the National Association of Mining Engineers (ANIM), a cultural association that focuses on the professional training of its members, public awareness of the study of issues related to the resolution of scientific, technical, economic and legislative problems concerning the mining industry, excavation engineering and related activities, integral utilization of resources and recycling of mining waste, management of excavated earth and rocks, large underground and open pit works, construction site safety, land defense and development, and environmental protection.

Consortium of Botticino ^Classico® Marble Producers

Founded in 1987, the Consortium aims to promote the culture and quality of Botticino Classico marble. Mined solely from the marble basin bounded by the borders of the Municipality of Botticino, "Classico" is the most prized quality of Botticino. A unique marble unmistakable for its characteristic coloring, but also for its compact and resistant structure, which makes it a versatile material for architectural and artistic achievements. Indeed, there are numerous testimonies of its structural and ornamental use over two millennia, from the Capitoline Temple, a masterpiece of Roman Brixia, from the Altar of the Fatherland to the colossal interiors of Grand Central Terminal in New York. Relying on the superior quality of the material quarried and processed in the area of origin by a highly specialized workforce, in its thirty years of activity, the Consorzio Produttori Marmo Botticino Classico has given great impetus to the notoriety and export of this marble to all continents, thanks to strategic activities aimed at affirming the values of Marmo Botticino Classico and its territory. Among the capital initiatives was that of creating the Collective Brand "Marmo Botticino Classico," the first origin brand applied to the stone market. Created in 2005 out of the need to protect and promote the exclusivity of Botticino marble from "copies" and counterfeits, the Mark certifies the origin of provenance, attests to the unique quality of the material, workmanship and controls its marketing. Many have also been, over the years, the Consortium's participations in national and international trade fairs to support the activities of member companies, among the most important the one in Carrara, Marmomac in Verona and Made in Milan, in the world Nuremberg, London, Paris, Japan, China, India, United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and Indonesia.

Monica Berardi, Consortium of Botticino ^Classico® Marble Producers

A native of Brescia, she holds a degree in Business Administration from the Faculty of Economics and Commerce of the State University of Brescia and has been working in the stone sector since 1999 as an administrative employee at the Cooperativa Operai Cavatori del Botticino based in Botticino (BS). She also holds several positions that lead her to get up close and personal with the extraction and processing of natural stone and the dynamics of the Botticino district: from 2009 to 2018, she is a Councilor with responsibility for the promotional activities of the Consorzio Produttori Marmo Botticino Classico (Botticino Classico Marble Producers' Consortium) and then assumed its presidency. Since 2019, he has also been president of the Botticino Quarrymen's Cooperative, RSG quality, environment and safety directorate, and member of the national leadership of Legacoop production and services.

Sara Zugni, art historian

D. in Conservation of Cultural Heritage and specialized in Museology of the Contemporary at the University of Bologna. She holds a Master's degree in Museum Operator from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Brescia. Her interest in the study and teaching of art history from an experiential point of view led her to obtain her certification as a Tourist Accompanist. A lecturer in Art History, art blogger and free-lance curator, she plans popular meetings dedicated to art and is involved in art projects and exhibitions. Over the years she has collaborated with important museum institutions such as the MAR in Ravenna, Fondazione Brescia Musei and Collezione Paolo VI in Concesio; she has designed in-depth art-historical itineraries for several municipalities and associations in the provinces of Brescia and Bergamo. In 2017 he edited and hosted for Tele Boario the program TB l'Arte, dedicated to the treasures of art and architecture kept between Lake Iseo and Valcamonica.

Vera Bugatti, street artist

A native of Brescia, born in 1979, Vera Bugatti holds a degree in Cultural Heritage Conservation from Parma and has worked as a researcher in the museum and library fields. With extensive experience at the national and international level, she has developed a personal aesthetic research and a clearly identifiable style. Her works are featured in the volumes Sidewalk Canvas by Julie Kirk Purcell, London 2011; Street Art by Russ Thorne, London 2014; The Art of Chalk by Tracy Lee Stum, USA 2016; Street Art en Europe by Nath Oxygène and Brigitte Silhol, Paris 2018; Designing graphic illusions, China 2019. Active since 2008 and anamorphic street painting expert since 2015, she has painted in Italy, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Ireland, Croatia, Austria, Malta, Sweden, Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal, Spain, Latvia, Russia, Great Britain, Bulgaria, Belgium, the United States, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates and India.

Vincenzo Latina - Realizer of the Botticino ^Classico® Pavilion at the Milan Triennale, 2019

Vincenzo Latina, in 1989 received a degree in Architecture from the IUAV in Venice. From 1990 to 1991 he collaborates - in Naples - at the studio of Francesco Venezia. In 1992 he began his professional activity in Syracuse. He is Associate Professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the Syracuse School of Architecture of the University of Catania, where he teaches and researches; he has been a lecturer at the Mendrisio School of Architecture, University of Italian Switzerland.

On the island of Ortigia, the ancient center of Syracuse, he has carried out a number of targeted urban revitalization and redevelopment interventions. He has won several architectural competitions and received numerous prizes and awards: in 2020 he won the International Mediterranean City of Dialogue Award, promoted by the International Mediterranean Foundation; in 2015 he won the Italian Architect Award given by the National Council of Architects, Landscape Architects, Planners and Conservators. In 2014 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Climiti e Dintorni Association; in 2013 he won the ARCH&STONE Stone Architectures of the New Millennium Award. In 2012 he won the Gold Medal for Italian Architecture from the Milan Triennale.